Energy with-out Oil Weblog

I know, I know, its been quite while since my last entry.

Lots has happened during that time, though most of it has little to do with saving the planet and prying the sheeple off their addiction to oil that MegaOilron has fostered like a pusher with an attitude.  In that time, Oil and gas at the pumps has hit massive highs, done irreparable damage to both the environment and the world economy.  Massive amounts of the world’s economic resources have migrated to the Middle East, denying the ability for the cash to be re-used within the economic engines of North America and civilized Europe.

Just recently, however, speculators have also taken a pretty good bath.  The fabricated price has taken them on a dizzying magic carpet ride as contract dates expired.  The bears got fleeced.  Good for them, lose as much as you like -unfortunately, at the rate the government has been systematically bailing out their Wall Street cronies, they won’t have to worry about any losses.  I am sure they will get it given back to foolishly squander it again soon enough.  The only one left holding the bag, apparently, is the individual tax payer.  We may not be able to get any of the plunder by these pirates, but government is sure damn set to ensure we pay the tab as usual  for the ones slurping at the pig trough of public cash.  The problem is thay have stepped up quite a few levels in their greed and mismanagement.

As taxpayers, we’re not seeing any breaks at all.  If you just remember a few months back, less than a year, the price of oil and especially gas at the pumps was much much less.  Right now, because of the trauma from where the prices have been recently, everyone is really ecstatic that the price of oil and gas are nowhere close to their record highs hit a couple months ago, down from $150 a barrel close to just $100 per barrel.  Now, we are happy to pay 1.30 a liter - and have been conditioned to forget the times where it was under .70, not so very long ago.  Obviously the tiome has come for a much cheaper alternative to be found.

But, do you really think that the Middle East sheiks and the multinational oil companies, MegaOilRon, and all the others feeding on the beast; raking in huge windfall profits, are ever going to let the price of oil drop back to where it is not crippling the ordinary family.  I doubt that very much.

As far as my search for alternative ways to power a city home is concerned.  During the early Spring, I priced out the cost of putting the house on a geothermal diet.  The benefits are extremely appealing, but that alternative is just too expensive for me right now.  I will make the plunge and do it, sometime soon.  It’s just that I couldn’t get the cash outlay together to

1) redo and install the ducts
2) drill the hole 450 feet deep into Mother Earth’s epidermis
3) then finally purchase the machine needed to utilize the earth’s warm heart to fight the cold Montreal winters or cool the family during the hot summer days.

It really has to be done as a complete project, nothing is useful in and by itself.

I have promised myself it will happen, I just don’t know when the cash will appear to do this.  As far as I can see, it is truly the most efficient way to take out a huge chunk of the energy requirements of any home. I am told this technology will eliminate 3 out of every 4 watts of energy I now use.  Even if it was only 60%, that would be a huge earth savings.   I must candidly admit, I like my toys - computers and other electronics do use lots of energy, so I can’t be too optimistic at overall percentage savings. And of course the father’s biggest complaint has always been that the family never shuts anything off - wasting untold watts for absolutely no useful gain!

Assuming a Geothermal solution is implemented soon, I will want to make up that last watt or two.  To do that, I fully intend to add the benefits of a solar awning to manufacture at least a part of that power during sunny days.  I don’t have the option of hydroelectric or wind generation where I live.

For those of you who don’t know what a solar awning actually is, it uses solar photovoltaic panels in an array much as they would for more standard roof configurations.  But, instead of installing them on the actual roof, a framework is designed to hold the panels out from the side of the house, just like a standard awning.  It won’t roll back into the house or anything, but it will provide a useful source of both shade and electrical generation.

Why would I want to do something like that, one might ask.  As far as I am concerned, the roof is a much better place to trap the heat of the sun with a solar thermal installation to heat the house’s hot water requirements. So the plan is really a conservation of resources.  Maybe it will have to be a stopgap before I can afford to step up to the Geothermal solution for home heating and cooling.  We needed furniture this year instead, and stuff for my son’s sports, and a new computer…and a sudden unexpected charge for a rental apartment…and…!

The dark, heat absorbing shingle backing provided by the roof makes solar thermal panels a lot more efficient at extracting the infrared spectrum from the solar power dropping from the sky during the day.  That captured heat could offer most of the hot water for daily showers, dish washing and the multitude of other requirements during the days where the sun can help actively heat the system.

The roof is not as much of an advantage for installing solar photovoltaic panels.  They work best when kept cool during opperation.  They are inhibited from peak efficiency the hotter they get.  Putting a solar panel on a roof will give it a lot of exposure to the sun, granted, but the roof underneath gradually heats as the day gets on, and that will reduce the panel’s ability to create electricity, usually right when the sun’s power is at its strongest.  There are now double sided solar panels that create electrical flow from both sides. Assuming a strong enough framework is designed to extend from the back wall of the house, and support the panels through everything the elements throw at us during the seasons of Montreal, and these panels were placed as an extension from the house, they will provide a dual advantage.  We will get a relaxing shade during the heat of the day, and the direct rays of the sun and generate even more effectively from both the top and the bottom.  Since, by design, they are suspended in space, they will not be as affected by reflected heat from any surfaces.  Properly positioned, the awning could also provide the initial protection and walls for a cabinet for the batteries needed to store the daily harvest of power.

Of course, if this works, the next logical step would be to use some of those panels specially configured to provide the perfect power to drive electrolytic chambers.  With enough power from the awning, or an additional fence canopy, the electrical cracking of water to generate hydrogen (and oxygen) to store should be quite ratonal, if not somewnhat radical.  The hydrogen would be stored under pressure for later use.  I expect it to run a generator during the dark hours and put me right off the grid permanently.  I would not want to consider an internal combustion engine for this application - both for the noise and the overall maintenance.  Give me a Stirling Engine, or better yet, the Cyclone Power Waste Heat Engine tuned to burn hydrogen - it uses no oil in it.  It is lubricated by distilled water.  It has been documented to work well with most other fuels, algae derived ethanol, bio-fuels of all types, so hydrogen can’t be that difficult.  It is the only engine I know of that is pretty close to mass producton using an external combustion patented technology.  Ticker Symbol - CYPW.

I promise, I won’t keep you waiting anywhere as long for the next entry.  I plan to document my trials with Hydrogen (actually Brown’s Gas) generators in my test car looking for documented gas mileage increases.